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Impressions:

If I were to divide Night Head Genesis in arcs, it would’ve just finished the first major arc: the virus. I earlier thought that this series was a single season show, which meant that that would be the end of the entire series, but it turns out there will be 24 episodes (I think) and the real story has started (the final arc I suppose). This second half of the series should be about Sonezaki, unless there’s a power even greater than him and overcoming will be the third arc. Anyway, the conclusion of the virus problem was definitely more exciting than the rest of the show, but it’s delivered through the intensity or seriousness of the show. As for anything related to action; it reeks. Even the characters aren’t drawn good and I think everyone is fairly ugly. Perhaps the animators had been going for the realistic look but ended up with this instead. If the visuals were better, such as more detailed and vibrant backgrounds, I would enjoy the show twice as much than if the storyline was made more exciting by the same amount (though you can’t compare how much better the quality gets to the storyline). I was pretty surprised when I saw some CG in the show too. It didn’t fit in with the rest of he show as usually, as it was inside, which makes it stand out more. Nevertheless, I hope the story continues to get more exciting (with more mysteries!!!), though it’s already pretty good currently.

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Popularity: 9% [?]

Impressions:

Episode 3 was greeaaat! I now like it more than Death Note, but mainly because I’ve read the manga. I was going to do an entry on ‘Death Note vs. Code Geass’ or something, but I found it to be unnecessary work for me even though I have exams next week. Which also means my blogging frequency should drop by the weekend or I might even go on a short hiatus. Anyway, as for why Code Geass is so good, it’s basically the same as Death Note but with a bit of school life and mecha, which make it that much better than the detective-only style that Death Note uses. I’m sure Death Note has more complex puzzles and reasoning (coming from both Light and L) than Code Geass’ Lelouch. Even so, Code Geass just feels like more, if you know what I mean. Besides, I’d prefer watching anime with teenagers than adults since they are usually more diverse with personalities and create more fun. Although, a show like Black Lagoon is good too with the interesting characters. You know…this might take over Kanon as first place in my books (for this season).

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Popularity: 13% [?]

Download the new ED (Full version mp3 – 10.0mb)
Right click link and select ’save target as’ or ’save link as’

Impressions:

Like with Innocent Venus, I didn’t watch these two episodes earlier because of all the new shows, but now that I am sort of free, I can do these. Even though the money is probably going mostly to Pumpkin Scissors now, resulting in a continuing mediocre quality, I like the story more than enough to continue this show. I’ve said before that the summer shows were all crap, though I think this is the exception. I really liked how they did the whole suspenseful lead up to the big jump. By that time I was extremely mixed up as I wanted them to jump (not sure why, guess the suspense got to me) but of course it’s obvious at least Satou won’t jump as that would mean the end of the show. Also, not only did the animators portray the suspense well, the also showed how hard it is to really die. If you ask me, I wouldn’t care if I was dead or not, as you can’t regret what you didn’t or did do after you die (well, that’s how I think anyway, and I don’t believe in afterlife). However, for me, it’s the act of ‘dying’ that’s scary, not ‘death’ itself. That’s probably what everyone was feeling when they were about to jump (before they began to realise that they didn’t really want to die). Though, I must say the part where Satou slipped was anticipated like as soon as the group got on the cliff. It was so obvious that I laughed when that happened.

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Popularity: 10% [?]

Impressions:

So, as some of you may know, there are now eight episodes to Stratos 4 Advance. I was quite surprised when I found a torrent for the seventh episode when previously everywhere I checked, it said there were only six episodes. Apparently though, these extra two episodes are actually the mysterious Stratos 4 Advance Kanketsuhen eps I read on ANN. I would still consider them as part of Stratos 4 Advance though, as the same episode codes are used (to make it more fun, they can the episoes ‘code 200′ to ‘208′.) It would probably be easier to just do a single entry on episodes 3 – 7 right now, but I only downloaded seven to see whether it was real or not (and it is!) Anyway, this episode saw some return to the days when Stratos 4 was known for its infamous pantsu shots, though they weren’t as ‘extravagant’ as before. Plot-wise there really isn’t much going on at the moment, as the episodes are more like short stories, but with little bits of extra that will eventually come together in the end. I’m glad this whole other arc is an OAV, as that sort of guarantees to be better than average.

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Popularity: 12% [?]

Impressions:

This anime is now the most idiotic piece of crap I’ve ever seen past episode two. The ONLY reason why I am still watching it is because apparently most of this episode was a filler, so the main storyline should be 100 times better, no? Seriously, I don’t watch Naruto but I am sure a lot of people would say that this filler is worse than the Naruto fillers. There’s ‘funny’, then there’s just plain ’stupid’. If you’re making a filler, at least make it in accordance with the rest of the anime and don’t just throw in completely random events in a random order with random overused chibi scenes and random everything else. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that random, but thinking of it as so eases the fault off the writers who came up with this crap. And I can’t believe the quality actually jumped to higher than episode 2. Why the hell would anyone choose to make a filler look better than a real episode, one that actually matters and has some importance to the storyline?! (Btw, I’m not really pissed right now as it might sound, I’m just trying to get the point across that this show now really, REALLY sucks!!!)

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Popularity: 10% [?]

Impressions:

Ah, I finally bothered to watch the final episodes of Innocent Venus. It’s not that I force myself to watch the series, but since so many of the new shows are more entertaining, I couldn’t find the energy to open up my media player and watch. Buuut, now that I have, I have to say that the ending was a lot better than some other finales I’ve seen. The only problem was the pacing, as the last episode was far too rushed. A lot of insight was given into the character’s past and such, but they weren’t expanded nearly enough. The producers definitely know how to animate war and destruction and I commend them for that. I liked a lot of the diverse angles and shot types used, as well as the clever use of lighting. Mechas using shunpo is pretty cool as well. Some nice commando moves were pulled off by Shiba and Renee too. I’ve seen a few so-called action anime where soldiers and officers only know how to stand, run and crouch (and maybe salute too). The ending does leave me wanting to see another episode to show the aftermath of everything. Maybe a few years in the future (or more), Sana grown up, the civilisations rebuilt, Jo’s long-awaited reunion with Sana etc.

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Popularity: 14% [?]

Impressions:

(Remember, my Death Note entries are spoiler-y. I’ll try to make these posts more non-manga-reader-friendly next time) You learn something new everyday. I knew Misa would be voiced by Hirano Aya, but I didn’t know that Light was voiced by the same voice actor as Tamaki from Ouran High School Host Club. But now that I compare the two, they do sound exactly the same. He’s also voicing Aoba from Tokimeki Memorial, but that’s not as significant. The thing is, this guy hasn’t had that many roles in anime and other media. This is sort of like Bleach where quite a few of the main characters are actually…newbies of sorts (including Kurosaki Ichigo). Meanwhile, L is being voiced by a voicing veteran, who’s most notable cast in anime (to me) is Inuyasha from the show, Inuyasha! Another thing, L’s real name is L Lawliet apparently. I don’t consider that a spoiler since it doesn’t ruin anything from the anime plot-wise. It seems Garten got his hands on some Death Note related book, which had L’s real name in it. Then some guy posted it as a comment below…Well, I for one don’t really care about his real name as it doesn’t ring any bells. What WOULD have caught my attention is if, for example, L’s real name was something like Yagami Lawliet. THAT would be mind boggling, though L and Light do think almost identically…

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Popularity: 12% [?]

Impressions:

Kanon still holds up its quality, though I thought the running and walking sequences could have been better. Even so, it’s still far better than a lot of ‘average’ anime out there, so I’m not complaining. The animation studios have to cut some things as this is the first time KyoAni is doing two-season series. So far, the heavy character development has been entangled with slight plot movement, though I can never tell what’s important and what’s just there to entertain the viewers. For example, Yuuichi taking the bento to Nayuki during practice. What was that? Was it an excuse to let the viewers see a bit more of Nayuki’s life? Maybe it had something to do with the storyline later on, or it could have just to fill in time with unessential but enjoyable events that all slice-of-life and drama animes have. Of course, part of everything builds up as lead ups to mysteries and solutions. That’s one of the things Kanon does very well, and that is to organise everything so all the little occurrences build up to something or create the gateway for something bigger to happen, yet make it seem like everything is normal and perfectly coincidental. And like I always say, I can’t wait for the next episode (this show is one of the few animes I really wish I could marathon; it’s just too irresistible).

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Popularity: 8% [?]